NEW CTMH IDEA BOOK Opening Shopping Day!!!!!! 2/1/14

New CTMH IDEA BOOK goes LIVE for SHOPPING 2/01/14 YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Be sure to come shop with me online at heatherplotzke.ctmh.com Opening Idea Book Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Artbooking Made Easy: Crush on Artbooking

Fashionista Card - hurry all materials retiring

I had fun making this card for January's workshop.  If  you are loving the Fashionista stamp set, the ribbon, and even the pearls (sorry the paper is already gone) HURRY to my website NOW because the are all retiring and will NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE as of January 31st!!!!!!!!!! Run over to retiring items tab on my shopping page now.

 The picture doesn't do her dress justice.  I used Liquid glass to outline the design on her dress and it gave it that "wow" factor and only took about 10 seconds to do...we all know I love my Liquid Glass for decoration AND adhesive

Its Saturday - whose crafting today????

Okay its cold over 90% of the country, no football out there....we should be Scrapping and cardmaking, crafting and glittering things ladies!!!!  We should have our glue guns plugged in and ready to go!!!!

Lets take back our rights to weekends......lets get our CRAFT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Who is with me??????

Leave me a comment...I'd love to hear from you!

Artbooking Made Easy: Love, Love, Love

Get all the supplies seen here to make this project and more at heatherplotzke.ctmh.com

Another reason why I love my CTMH Cricut cartridges!

So I was rushing to finish a project deadline the other day and decided I would grab some punches out of a drawer instead of my ever-faithful Cricut because I was in a hurry. Good decision?!?!?  YOU TELL ME...

Hmmmm...after two punches this happened!  My paper was trashed, my hand looked like I was in a boxing match AND my project didn't get done on time.  Oh and my husband wanted to know if it could be put back together, how about heck noooooo!

This is why I promise myself to take the time the do things right, the extra 5 minutes it would have taken me in prep time would have saved me a hour of wasted time and wasted product.  Do it right the first time ladies! I love my CTMH Cricut Cartridges, and I promise to not cheat on them again!!!!

Frosted Paper Mache book

I made a decorated false "book" to store cards as they came in this year using Frosted papers (retiring Jan 31st) and an inexpensive paper mache "book I got at a local craft store. To adhere the paper I simply used bonding memories glue while wet, and it worked like wall paper, becoming part of the book.  I used baby powder on the back of our My Stickease,  to make them into die cuts, cut them into separate pieces and popped them off the book with foam tape for added depth and character.  It's okay to you are NOT going to have the sticker police at your door, you can distress, cut, tear, stamp on, etc your My Stickease I promise!!!   I also used Glitz gel (retiring on the 31st so grab yours now) to give that sheen of snow to the trees.

I loved how it turned out, leave me a comment below telling me what YOU think!

Winter heatwave layout

While the West coast is having a crazy winter Heat wave (sorry East coasters), I thought I'd post a picture of a fun layout I made and never shared.

Artbooking Made Easy: Love Is in the Air

Covered Wood Letters - Frosty

I wanted to show you all a set of wood letters that I easily painted and decorated by covering with CTMH papers (more photos at the bottom of post).  If you've ever wondered how to do this with wood shapes, it is sooooo easy, so let me show you how.  Let's get started:

• I quickly painted the letters with white acrylic paint and let completely dry.
• Next I traced the letters lightly with pencil and cut paper. (TIP - It's better to have a little over to trim than to be under)
• With Modge Podge glue I painted a liberal amount a glue to the paper, and applied paper to the wood.  At this time you'll be able to smooth out bubbles and have a few minutes of play to "move" paper slightly.  
• Depending on WHAT you will be doing with your finished project you may need to apply a layer of Modge Podge over top of the paper as a "sealer".  The sealer layer will dry clear but leaves a wet, often glossed look depending on the type of glue you have.  I choose not to do that in this case.
• Once Paper dries, I left mine over night, but I would leave for several hours for sure, you can go back and trim edges.  I used CTMH's finishing files (metal) because they fit perfectly into tricking spots and work great on the edges. 
• Now is the time to edge distress, if you choose and then the super fun part...embellishment time!
• Here your going to see that added glitter using CTMH glitter glitz by applying it then using a paint brush to spread it out for a more overall coverage (Glitter Glitz's are being RETIRED...get yours now HERE before they are all gone).  On the "T" I wrapped metal wire several times.  All the embellishments were glued on with my favorite adhesive (I bet you regulars can guess it) Liquid Glass!

These wood letters are from a store in Utah called Wood Creations Crafts, you should check them out.  They are a Pinterest board I follow just because they are always great for crafting inspiration. Their wood pieces come shipped without papers or do-dads which is perfect for me--I just have to add my favorite CTMH products to them!

Project Swap - cards and mini gift bag

Here are some projects that some of my CTMH Gal Pals (Dawn, Candace, and Patty) designed and I assembled  as part of a project swap from the current Idea Book that I should have shared months ago oops....shiny objects and butterflies.  Enjoy!!!!

Laughing Lola

Sarita

Babycakes

Chipboard Card Storage Book

Here is an idea that never gets old, its a chipboard board card storage book!  We made these for a class a few years ago, and I continue to store my photo cards in a one each year.  Cool thing with adding bigger rings I usually can usually store about 5 years of photo cards per binder.  I love it, because lets face it.  I don't save every card ever given...none of us do.  But I DO save all of my friends photo cards, handmade cards, and the cards my kids make me each year!  This works perfect for this and looks cute too! So let me show you quickly how below.  I have a friend that gives these as gifts to every niece as wedding and baby shower gifts...can you imagine...PERFECT!!!! AND so EASY!!!!!

Here is the middle: see how the paper from the front just wraps over and mitered corners.  Then put a piece of B&T to cover the middle.  Its perfect.  No measuring, nothing to score, easy peasy!!!

My back cover

January 16th Workshop Signup's needed ASAP

Hi everyone...Happy New Year! Somewhere my Newsletter has been lost in the cyberspace so I need to reissue a quick email about January 16th's class in Oceanside at Oceanside Community Church. Class will start at 6:30p and cost $20. Sorry for such late notice, like I said I thought the emails went out, oops...but I need to know ASAP if you'd like to attend so I can order supplies.

Be sure to note that classes are now on THURSDAY NIGHTS now! That is the night the classroom is available to us now in the Church schedule, so I hope that it works out for everyone's schedule.

Everyone attending January's workshop will get an advanced sneak peak at the NEW Idea Book set to go live February 1st!!!!

PS: If you got the above email twice sorry my email was acting crazy like I said super sorry!

NEW -- FIND RETIRING ITEMS EASIER WITH THEIR OWN SHOPPING TAB

Special TAB on my shopping page for all the RETIRING ITEMS!  This will make it soooooo easy for you to see pictures of everything retiring all on the same page with just a quick scroll down.  Here is the link, just click here now to see RETIRING ITEMS NOW!!!!

National Papercrafting Month Cloud Nine Cardmaking Kit

Find out how to get your amazing National Papercrafting Kit NOW!!!